1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to solar heated buildings, and in particular to such building structures that moderate the extreme interior temperature variations via use of off-time cycle thermal storage techniques in structural concrete slabs and interior massing.
2. Description of Prior Art
Currently, solar heated buildings comprised of solar air systems that use concrete slabs and interior massing for thermal storage have attained little success in the warmer climates of the world. To be economically feasible in mild winter locations, solar buildings of this type need to be cool more of the year than they need to be warm. This premise is not addressed in the current art in that all designs favor heating over cooling.
A solar heated building that works more favorably in the colder regions in U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,999, wherein the attic solar air collector provides heat for winter use via ductwork to the rock storage below the living area. In warmer climates, this patent and other similar ones involving roof or attic collectors do not address the overheating the building experiences in the summer months through the attic, thereby negating the smaller economic benefit of solar heating the structure in the winter.
Other detrimental aspects of current solar building art applied to warmer climates can be examined in U.S. Pat No. 4,296,798, in which an integral component of the system is a "ground contact stage," wherein cooling the structure is assisted by the cool earth underneath cooling the building slab. Such an arrangement would be negative to the cooling cycle in warm climates in that it is not unusual to encounter very high temperatures in the ground early in the warm season, thereby adding heat through thermal conduction and convection from the earth underneath the structure.
Additional related art adverse to warmer climate solar building applications should be noted by referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,973 wherein the invention primarily relies on thermo-siphon circulating air through vertical air slots in the lower slab from the array of concrete blocks and rock thermal storage to the upper living areas and back. The undesirable results of this solution in warmer climate areas would be to invite the infestation of pests such as fire ants or rodents into the lower thermal storage below the living area. Similarly, odor problems exist with such applications as well as mold formation and entrapment of radon gas.
Consequently, as can be shown, prior inventions do not fully accomplish the more specific differences inherent in designing an economical and successful solar warm climate building. Whatever the precise merits, features, and advantages of the above-cited references, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of a warm climate solar building like the present invention.